


Turn To Dust

by CaesiumDressing



Series: Huxloween stuffs [10]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M, curse, gothic horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 19:40:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8258126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaesiumDressing/pseuds/CaesiumDressing
Summary: General Hux goes to spirit Kylo Ren away from Snoke's side after the fall of the First Order.Written for Huxloween Prompt: Gothic Horror





	

Hux stood on the extended ramp of the shuttle staring at the crumbling façade of the Supreme Leader’s citadel. The massive guard towers on either side of the front gate had enormous cracks running from the ground to just under the platform where guards were to stand watch.  On the right a tower leaned drunkenly as if it were on the verge of falling this very moment but by the grace of the force it remained standing.

He shook himself out of his reverie, glancing around the compound. The gates themselves were locked and the Supreme Leader surely would not just welcome him into the citadel. The war was over, the First Order had lost, and General Hux was nothing but a failure. The Resistance was sweeping across the galaxy, chasing down the remaining officers to bring them to their so-called justice. Hux has managed to evade them so far, and he intended to continue doing so, but he must first reclaim what was his.

Kylo Ren had been returned to the citadel shortly after the destruction of the Starkiller base. Hux recalled stroking his hair back from his sweating brow and breathing sweet apologies into Kylo’s ear. Kylo hated his master, and after having shared the memories of the horrors of training with him Hux had come to hate the man as well.

The General marched down the ramp and began to circle the compound. It didn’t take long for him to find a wall that had long ago crumbled away. This place had never truly been Snoke’s. No, this was a ghost planet. This citadel had been built back when an alien race ruled this world. They had all died in a war hundreds of standard years ago. The Republic and the First Order both refused to take the planet for their own. No one would want to be surrounded with millions of lost souls. Only a ghoulish man like Snoke would want to live in a place like this.

A shudder ran through Hux’s shoulders as he climbed over the rubble of the wall. A ghoul was the best way to describe the seven-foot tall skeletal creature Kylo called master. Hux had always assumed he was human having never have met him in person, but the memories Kylo showed him made him second guess his assumption.

“His skin is always like ice,” Kylo said, shaking in Hux’s arms after having woken up from a vicious nightmare. “And he doesn’t smell as a man smells. He smells like the darkness between the stars and swamp water.” Kylo’s eyes shined with fear in the darkness as he stared at Hux.

There was a sudden shifting in the courtyard Hux had just stepped into. His hand whipped his blaster from the holster and took aim at a ridge where the rock had shifted. He breathed slowly as he trained his eyes on the area and focused on the sounds of his surroundings. He had only just realized this planet was silent but for the wind. He took another breath and the rock shifted again, revealing a gray lizard about eight inches long. It began sluggishly dragging itself away when it noticed Hux. The General relaxed and pushed his blaster back into its holster, he hadn’t even considered that there would be animal life anywhere near Snoke.

Kylo had also told him that living things seemed to die when they came in contact with his master.

“I don’t know what it is,” Kylo said, his head resting on Hux’s thigh while the lounged on the couch in his sitting room. “It just seems that living things that spend time with him lose their will to live. Something about him drains their spirits.”

“What about you?” Hux said, brushing his fingers through Kylo’s silken hair. Kylo shook his head.

“Not me. I can’t explain it, but I never feel drained when he’s close. It almost seems like I’m stronger.”

Hux scoffed. All the horrible things the old man had done to Kylo and he still believed he gave him some sort of power. The General didn’t believe it and now it didn’t matter. They were defeated; there was no reason for Kylo to remain with this old savage. Hux glanced at the tracker to determine Kylo’s location. It appeared as if he was in a high tower at the back of the fortress. Pulling up the aerial view of the palace he had taken on descent, it appeared as if the towers were accessed through a large chamber in the center.

He approached the massive front doors to the fortress itself and pushed on them. They swung inward without resistance. Gray light filtered in through windows on the outer walls of the fortress and illuminated all of the dust floating in the air.

“Most of the citadel sees no use,” Kylo had told him as they ate one evening. “My master has no other apprentices or attendants. They were all too weak to survive his presence.”

Stepping forward Hux glanced down each hallway; they were all covered with dust as if no one had passed through them in years. Only the hallway running deeper into the castle seemed to have been used lately. Just beyond the entrance the whole hallway was dark. There were no skylights and the poor gray light of the ghost planet’s noon couldn’t reach very far inside. Hux illuminated his path with an emergency light, casting everything in an eerie orange glow.

“I’ll kill him if he hurts you again,” Hux had whispered to Kylo one night as he shivered against his chest, unable to sleep for fear of the nightmares of dying children. Kylo gasped and clamped his hand over Hux’s mouth.

“Please, Hux!” he whispered, trembling “You mustn’t kill my master. He saved me from my own death and I cannot survive without him. If you kill him you will kill me.” Kylo’s eyes were round and full of fear. Hux acquiesced and vowed that he would not kill Kylo’s master. That was the only lie he’d ever told Kylo, he could not allow the monster to live.

Pushing another door open Hux found himself in a vast throne room. Along the walls hung moth eaten tapestries depicting battles long forgotten and the rises and falls of empires without names. There was a portrait of an old green skin alien draped in finery that Hux could only assume was the ruler of the planet before the inhabitants died. At the top of the room he saw two doors leading into two towers on either side of a massive stained glass window.

The window depicted a tree in the center with the right side was a night scene with red eyed monsters locked in combat. On the left was a day scene with a sage like man holding a sprouting plant in his cupped hands. The tree itself had a taproot running into each and there were veins of darkness and light both running up the tree and erupting at the top in beautiful green leaves and red flowers. Hux stared at the window, contemplating the meaning.

“Both sides of the force, General. It represents both sides of the force bringing life to the galaxy.” Hux jumped, spinning around, breathing hard. Standing in the doorway behind him was Snoke himself. He glided forward, stepping past Hux and toward the window. “I have had years to meditate on the meaning of the two sides of the force and only come back with more questions and no answers. My apprentice was my latest attempt to find an answer.”

“By torturing him you had hoped to find the meaning of this window?” Hux said, coming back to himself.

“No, General,” Snoke said, shaking his head and sitting in a throne at the foot of the window. “You misunderstand. The truth of the matter is this, Ben Solo killed the light in himself when he learned the nature of his grandfather, I saved him from his fate and taught him the ways of the dark side so he could live. If I hadn’t filled him with darkness, he would have died long before you even met.” Snoke leaned back in the throne, closing his eyes.

“I’ve seen the things you do, you monster. Kylo has done nothing but suffer under you and I’ve come to take him back and destroy you.” Hux pulled his blaster from his thigh holster and trained it on the old man’s skull. Snoke laughed.

“Killing me will bring you no happiness, General, though you may as well,” Snoke sighed. “The Resistance has already discovered the whereabouts of this place and I have no means of escape without you. They will be here within the day so by all means, take your revenge and retrieve your prince if you believe that will make you whole but understand that he cannot live without me.” Snoke smiled and relaxed into the throne further.

Hux pulled the trigger on the blaster and watched the old man’s head practically disintegrate. The body itself fell to dust where it sat, leaving behind nothing more than a pile of ash and a black robe. Even before the ashes that were once Snoke settled, the whole planet gave a great shudder and the stained glass window shattered spilling shards of color across the grey stone floor. Behind him, Hux heard the leaning guard station at the front of the fortress crash to the ground. Then he heard a shriek from the top of the tower where Kylo was.

The planet shook again and Hux ran as fast as he could up the seemingly endless spiral staircase to where his love was held. He burst through the door and collapsed on the stone floor in black flowing robes was Kylo Ren.

“Ren!” Hux cried, running to Kylo’s side and lifting his head so he could look at Hux.

“You came for me.” Kylo wheezed. The planet trembled again and Hux heard the front wall of the citadel come crashing down.

“Come on Kylo,” Hux said, pushing himself to his feet, trying to get Kylo to stand as well but Kylo was too heavy for Hux to lift. He dropped to his knees. “Please, we need to go.” Kylo looked at Hux with tears filling his eyes.

“You killed my master, Hux.” Kylo said, his cheeks sinking in and his skin becoming ashen. “Without him I am empty. Ben Solo killed himself the day he discovered his grandfather was Darth Vader, Snoke breathed life into this body to create Kylo Ren, without him I cannot survive.” Kylo’s hair fell out in great clumps as his eyes sank back into his skull. Kylo made a gesture with his hand as if he were trying to brush his now shriveled fingers across Hux’s lower lip, but didn’t have the strength to lift the limb. The body in Hux’s arms went limp, and with a final rattle of breath Kylo Ren was dead.

The fortress around Hux quaked again. Hux clutched the bones, the only thing remaining of his lover, to his chest as the tears ran hot down his face. With one last mighty heave the planet collapsed inward and the citadel was no more.


End file.
